Ethiopia Fourth day - 30/09/13 otherwise known as 20/01/2006 in Ethiopia!

Today I was up at 6am ready for school! I walked down to Stephanie and Dawits for my usual breakfast of bread (not injera this morning!) and something which reassembled baked beans but clearly had berbere (local spices) inside as my tongue tingled! It was 25 degrees inside this morning. After that we made the twenty minute walk to the Grade School which Stephanie and Dawit's children go to, opened it up and Stephanie went through the plans and introduced me to all the teachers. Then we headed to the New Far School to see how they were getting on. We stayed there all morning and I got my first experience of EAL in Ethiopia. I played some matching and jigsaw games with the Kindergarten class and helped them to paint for the first time - it's amazing giving a child a paintbrush who has never held one before!  Then I moved up the the higher grades and helped out with a science lesson in Amharic about labelling the body parts. After the children had finished their work they were allowed to play on the carpet and again I helped out as they experienced Barbie and Ken dolls for the first time! Needless to say, they did not want to put them down to go to break time but the new football I brought helped ease that pain!

We then went back into class and I lead an English class on the body parts - we sung head, shoulders, knees and toes and the children wrote down the English names next to a picture of the body. I then observed Stephanie teaching a maths lesson in Amharic.

We returned home late for lunch (now 31 degrees in the house), then Stephanie stayed there to home school her two children (as she does every afternoon) and me and Dawit headed to the KG1 school to take cement and have a look around. I joined in a a short number lesson before the end of the day and then headed back to the Solomon guest house to discuss my rate and see if the internet was working. As you can see, it is and I've decided to stay here (for about 6 pounds a day). I'm going to head down to the house to see what they are up to.
THINGS I LEARNT TODAY
Quas means ball in Amharic - lots of children asking for those on the way to school as we walked with them
There are not many mosquitoes in Nazret and they mainly come out after 6pm - whoop whoop!

Ethiopia Third day - 29/09/13 otherwise known as 19/01/2006 in Ethiopia!

I didn't sleep very well last night and woke continuously until about 4am when I dozed off. I finally emerged from the bottom bunk at 10am to a nice cup of tea and injera with something (are you getting the food theme here yet!). By the way, knives and forks aren't used here, you must wash your hands before eating and then the right hand (all fingers and thumb) is used to mush up a wad of food before you stuff it into your mouth. It is not appropriate to lick your fingers, which are washed at the end of the meal.

I went around to the KG1 school with Stephanie where Dawit was welding the shade for the playground which we helped to clear of sticks and stones, then returned for lunch-guess what that was. The children and Dawits' mother arrived from Addis Ababa shortly after we ate and they all looked tired after a weekend of fun with their cousins. Dawit then took me to look at some accommodation. First stop - a small guest house near the Purple Palm - a cafe which Dawit joint owns. This was very small and so we went to see more. Three guest houses later and I picked a room for the night! I may move tomorrow to check out the competition. The rooms are literally a few houses away from Stephanie and Dawits' place and not far from school. So I nipped back for dinner and spent some time interacting with the children. First day of school tomorrow - Can't wait to see what it shall bring!
THINGS I LEARNT TODAY:
Not only horses can be seen on the streets of Nazret, donkey's, goats, cows and dogs can too!
It is illegal to travel with suitcases on the back seat of your car!

Ethiopia second day - 28/09/13 otherwise known as 18/01/2006 in Ethiopia!

After a decent nights sleep I enjoyed some bread and date jam with a cup of tea for breakfast. Myself and Stephanie then went for a walk around Nazret where I was shown many nice hotels (with pools), a supermarket and the bank to change some money. The exchange rate is extremely good right now so I was very happy to leave the bank with lots of BIRR. We then went to see the grade school and looked at some planning and resources, after which we wandered back to Stephanie and Dawit's house for some lunch - again Injera with Shiro (made without onion and garlic especially for me). Me and Stephanie then had a long chat about the English Alive Academy, how it came about and where it's going to in the future. One more night in the bunk bed for me, then off to a hotel/guest house tomorrow.
THINGS I LEARNT TODAY:
There are lots of horse-drawn carts in the side streets which move pretty fast and many horses wandering freely on the roads.
If you drink the tap water, you get a nasty bug which can be cured in 24 hours if you recognise the symptoms and take some pills.
Hyenas are as common as dogs in Nazret - but they only come out at night.

Ethiopia First day - 27/09/13 otherwise known as 17/01/2006 in Ethiopia!

After a very long flight with crazy meal times (11.30pm and 4am) I arrived in Addis Ababa to stand in the longest immigration queue I've seen to date. I felt a little faint after the lack of sleep with sudden heat and although no-one spoke any English, a kind man gave me a bottle of water to get me through!
Once outside I met Stephanie and Dawit for the first time and was introduced to the Ethiopian greeting of three cheek kisses. We proceeded to go for breakfast and I enjoyed my first Ethiopian omelet whilst passers by chanted and waved bunches of flowers to celebrate the finding of the True Cross - Meskel - trust me to arrive on a public holiday and celebration! I'm so glad I did, as then on we went to Dawit's sisters' house to share in the family celebrations. After a short prayer I ate my first Injera (sour bread pancake) with Gomen (minced spinach) followed by a lovely slice of cake! I also tried another bread made from part of a non-fruiting banana tree but declined the Tera Sega (raw mince meat) and malt drink on this occasion. Dawit has a lovely family and I enjoyed the wonderful atmosphere of children playing and adults laughing, joking and sharing food.
It was quite cool in the city but when we left for the house in Nazret, I fell asleep in the hot car (damn jet lag) and awoke as we neared the town to see baboons walking across the road and beautiful scenes of green and brown plains with odd shaped trees on the horizon.
I crashed on the children's bunk beds (they stayed in Addis to carry on celebrating with their family) at Stephanie and Dawit's place that night and hoped to sort out my accommodation the next day..
Lovely people, top day, what a start!
THINGS I LEARNT TODAY:
Every dish in Ethiopia has onion and garlic in it.
There is a toothbrush tree (which I must investigate further for emergency teeth brushing situations)

Fundraising for EAA

After discussing fundraising for the English Alive Academy (http://englishaliveacademy.blogspot.fr/) with my good friend Jenny, she offered to have a tea and cake afternoon at which we raised the princely sum of £144.24 which I spend on getting lots of things to take to Africa with me.Thanks to all those who contributed, below the pictures is a list of items which I will be taking to ethiopia.
Also thanks to those family members and friends who donated toys and books for me to take as well.

1	Pipe Cleaners x2	21	Jigsaws x 10	41	String
2	Plastic Spatulas	22	Books (lots)	42	Porcelain Pens
3	Dominos x4	23	Wooden Train Set	43	Elastic Bands
4	Dough Cutters	24	Clock	44	Stickers
5	Painting Sponges	25	Stamp Set x2	45	Magnetic words
6	Paint Brushes	26	Bingo game	46	Magnetic Times Tables
7	Magnetic Letters	27	Chess game	47	Beads
8	Magnetic Numbers	28	Staple gun	48	Mini footballs
9	Powder Paint  x3	29	Highlighters	49	Cable Ties
10	Whiteboard Markers x3	30	Plastic letters with holes	50	Cup cakes cases
11	Pencil Crayons x 10	31	Plastic Numbers with holes	51	Wooden hammers x 5
12	Paint pots/pallets x6	32	Alphabet Biscuit Maker	52	Wooden Toys
13	Card games x 10	33	Mirror Card	53	Football Pump
14	Plastic Cones x 12	34	Magnifying glasses x5	54	Glitter
15	Footballsx3	35	Scissors x30	55	Marbles
16	Chalkboard Spray	36	Googley Eyes	56	Sunflower seeds
17	Plastic Clay tools	37	Posters	57	Shaped Scissors
18	Powdered Glue	38	Wooden Shapes	58	Left handed Scissors
19	Pipettes	39	Art Doll	59	Pinboard Magnets
20	Compasses x3	40	Rubber Printing Blocks	60	Plastic buttons